Dear Reader:
We’re immensely proud to present the 20l3 Acheson Prize issue of the Yale Review of International Studies. This issue follows a full year of planning and scheming, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the result.
Named for Dean Gooderham Acheson ’15, the prize is awarded annually. Acheson served as Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. Following his tenure at the State Department, he served on the Yale Corporation, and, in 1970, won the Pulitzer Prize in History for his memoir, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. The prize honors Acheson’s legacy as a thinker, scholar, and public servant.
In only its first year, the Acheson prize received well over 100 submissions. The eight finalists published here distinguished themselves among a truly excellent pool of submissions. Inevitably, there were many more truly impressive essays than eight; our only regret is that we could not publish more of them.
Though they represent only a small fraction of the total pool, the eight finalists provide their own window into the daunting breadth of undergraduate scholarship produced across the university. Flipping through the journal, you will encounter cogent analyses of revolutionary Nicaraguan poetry, Soviet art, and Berlin transit maps. You will move from Mexico onto Iraq, from the Caribbean onto the Congo.
The Acheson Prize could not have been launched at all without the support of International Security Studies, the backing of the Yale International Relations Association, and the great generosity of our three judges: Dr. Amanda Behm, Amb. Ryan Crocker, and Dr. Jolyon Howorth. We owe them our sincere thanks
Finally, a request: Please consider submitting your work to the journal in the future. We look forward to reading your work, and to using your ideas to fill many more issues to come.
Sincerely,
The Editors